87th Annual City of Asheville Open Tennis Tournament 2018

When I met Kathy Hurley in a coffee shop in Asheville earlier this year, I knew I’d found an incredible ally in the community. Brimming with ideas, possessing a near limitless list of contacts, and intent on making both the tournament and my business a success, I cannot speak highly enough of my experience working with this woman, who is also the founder and executive producer of Milepost 355.

What came from this meeting was my first opportunity to photograph a big sporting event - a weeklong tournament with hundreds of participants - a dream of mine since I first entered the sports photography world 6 years ago. In fact, as we discussed the amount of coverage we thought the event deserved, we realized that I could not do this solo, I’d have to lead a team of photographers (thus accomplishing another goal of mine!) This way, while I primarily captured the action on the courts, my team could document the fan experience and all of the help from my fellow sponsors and volunteers. All told, over the span of the 6 day Open and the 3 day juniors’ tournament, I must have photographed upwards of 40 hours, with Alex Cox of Alex Cox Photography and Erin Dalton contributing another 10 each.

Our goal for photography coverage was threefold:

1. Capture the essence of the event from the sports action to the cheering to the food truck lunches to the raffles and massages. Not to mention, the incredible sunsets. All so that the tournament committee, the Asheville Tennis Association and the city tourism board at large could use these images for their advertising.

2. Photograph as many matches as possible so every athlete could have the chance to purchase their own prints and digital images (as I can attest to, something few athletes get to do!)

3. Document all of the signage and products that each fantastic sponsor & local business provided to thank them for their hard work.

   • Dunlop

   • Wicked Weed

   • Brian Elston Law

   • Signarama

   • Milepost 355

   • Adrian Etheridge Photography

   • HomeTrust Bank

   • Explore Asheville

   • Asheville Parks & Recreation

   • Asheville Tennis Association

   • The Hop

   • Green Sage

   • Doc Brown’s BBQ

   • Melt Your Heart

The biggest thing I noticed throughout this entire tournament was how much fun everyone was having. Laura Loftis, the facilities manager at Ashton Park, made a similar comment to me after looking through the slideshow I put together to run each day in the clubhouse; in seemingly every photo, everyone was smiling - even the competing participants. As a lifelong athlete myself, taking photos of smiling competitors truly enjoying the spirit of the game was quite a pleasure.

The response from these photos has been incredible. 50 athletes (or parents of athletes) purchased celebratory photos of themselves in action. We decorated the Ashton Park clubhouse with 10 prints of varying sizes (including a whopping 30” x 40” beauty!) Explore Asheville purchased several images to use for their event promotion. Kathy and I put together a gallery of several hundred photos to get a jump on advertising for next year’s tournament. And most exciting of all - we’re already putting together a bigger and better plan to capture next year’s event!

See the 2018 full gallery of images: here.